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8.31.2009

Two Ex-Tbirds cut...

Josh Schappert and Mike Krgovich were both invited to training camp with the Chilliwack Bruins but both were given their outright release. Story can be found here.

Schappert played parts of 3 seasons with the Tbirds, notching 119 games, 10 goals and 16 assists. Schappert also played in 11 playoff games with 1 goal and 2 assists. Last season he played for the Selkirk Steelers of the MJHL.

Krgovich was in Seattle camp last year and never appeared in a regular season game.

Weekend Notes

Tbirds defeated Portland on Saturday night 4-2 in the first exhibition contest of the season. From the reports I got it sounded like Portland really outplayed the Tbirds but Seattle was more opportunistic with their scoring chances and Kyle Jahraus played very well for the Tbirds in net.

A handful of veterans did not play and Russian Mikhal Sentyurin (not the now correct spelling) is also not playing yet. I have also learned that Justin L"e"chance is actually... Justin Lachance. So... take that for what it is worth.

Seattle still has roughly 30 skaters by my count and needs to probably cut about 7 or 8 more guys before the opener.

Tbirds are back in action on Friday for the Everett pre-season tournament. I will be going up to take notes on Friday morning and Sunday afternoon but I'm skipping the Saturday game against Everett. Might as well keep superstitions going in the pre-season.

8.28.2009

A few news items....

Lifted from Gregg Drinnan....

- Former Tbirds goaltenders have come to terms on a couple of deals recently. Cody Rudkowsky has signed a one year deal with the Edinburgh Capitals of the UK Elite league. He did not play last season after spending some time previously with Phoenix and Cincinnati of the ECHL and Grand Rapids in the AHL. Bryan Bridges has signed on with the Fayetteville FireAntz of the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL). Bridges battled a groin injury last year and spent time with 4 different teams between Las Vegas, Reading and Elmira of the ECHL and Port Huron of the IHL.

- Local kid Anthony Petruzzelli of Kent, who was cut from Tbirds camp after Tuesday night's scrimmage is being given a chance in Prince George who is set to open camp on Friday.

8.27.2009

Scrimmage Day 2

Quickly... 514 visitors to the site yesterday which is not only amazing for this time of the year but also a new website record. Thanks as always for checking it out.

I'm not going to re-type the rosters for the 2nd scrimmage last night. Some players were cut and send home and a few players switched teams.

Players that were sent home: Jared D'Amico (15), Danny Kowalski (15), Matthew Berry-LaMontagna (16), Jordan Houghton (15), Gus Correale (16), Patrick D'Amico (15), Austin Hoff (16), Kyle Horsman (15), Jetlan Houcher (15), Jeffrey Kennedy (15), Andrew Macleod (15), Jason Ness (15), Anthony Petruzzelli (16) and Jordan Salahor (16).

I had to leave after one period last night so not much here but these are the notes I took. Charles Wells was in uniform and playing but new Import Senturin is still not playing.

- DeSerres for Blue and Jahraus for White starting in net tonight.

- Sena with a nice little spin-o-rama move down the left side of the zone but his pass fails to connect after the nifty move.

- Parker with quick snap shot from the slot that is shouldered away by DeSerres.

- Parker with another chance for a backhand on DeSerres that is kicked away at the last minute, great save by DeSerres who is looking healthy again.

- Rai in alone to the right of DeSerres but rifles high over the corner of the net. White has applied all the pressure here in the opening minutes of the game.

- Lechance with a quick shot that is turned into the middle by Jahraus (dangerous) but is cleared away by the defense.

- Lockhard whiffs on a rebound looking at a mostly open net. The puck was bouncing and hopped right over his stick.

- Blue penalty results in a Parker Penalty Shot and he finishes with over the right pad of DeSerres, the same pad that DeSerres used to stop him minutes earlier and the White team leads 1-0.

- White penalty shortly after and Lechance buries a pretty shot to the low corner past Jahraus and tie the game at 1-1.

- Rai flashing his trademark speed around the corner and crashes into the post knocking the net off its pegs.

- Baker shot stopped and held by Jahraus.

- White dominated the 1st period but it comes to an end with the score tied 1-1.

Here is the link to the Tbirds story on the rest of the game. Parker later would add another goal to lead the White team to the victory. Parker was a force all period and I would guess was the easy MVP of the game in my mind.

Very conservatively thinking... Here is how I would breakdown the roster battles if we assume a 22 skater roster.

Fowards -

Rai (20)
Nielsen (20)
Acolatse (19)
Wells (18)
Silvester (18)
Parker (18)
Lockhard (17)
Lund (17)
Senturin (17)
Jacobs (16)

Defense -

Schappert (20)
Warg (19)
Haber (19)
Dillon (19)
Chaffin (18)
Fleming (17)

That's 16 skaters so let's go with about 4 spots left. In my mind at least 2/3 of those will need to be D's and 3/4 could be F's.

On the Forward side... I think you're looking at 3 or 4 spots between Tyler Sybil (17), Justin LeChance (17), Tyler Alos (16), Connor Sanvido (16), Joey Baker (16), Jacob Doty (16), Mitch Elliot (16), Robbie Newton (16) and Brennan Tutt (16).

Now... what I think might happen and who I would choose are two different things. Of this group, I would keep Alos, Sanvido, Baker and Elliot/Newton. Who will they keep? If I knew I probably wouldn't be allowed to say so... but I would be pretty surprised if they didn't keep Sanvido and since Russ loves kids with size it wouldn't surprise me at all to see Newton and or Elliot also kept.

On the Defense side... I think you're looking at 2 or 3 spots for these guys... Kaydon Trumbley (18), Mitch Berg (18), Jordan Blake-Jones (17), Jared Crema (17), Tanner Muth (16) and Ryan Armbruster (16). This one is a little easier for me. I would keep Crema and Berg as my first two and if you want to keep a 3rd I would love to keep Muth around. If you want to just bite the bullet and go young and only keep 8 D I would keep Crema and Muth and cut Berg loose but I doubt they do that.

8.26.2009

Boyer and Training Camp Scrimmage Recap

First news came out last night and was confirmed this morning that Jeremy Boyer did not report to camp and has requested a trade. My guess is that he wants to be traded to Saskatoon but who knows... In my opinion, this is a really strange decision by Boyer who would have been the Tbirds 2nd highest returning scorer and would have been given a ton of ice time on either the 1st or 2nd line. Whatever... The real impact here is that Seattle has lost another potential scorer and as Alan Caldwell pointed out this morning, the Tbirds now have only 85 goals returning from the 2008-09 roster which is now the lowest in the league by a pretty wide margin.

On to the scrimmage recap....

- Jared D'Amico for Blue and Calvin Pickard for White starting in net for the two teams.

- White with a ton of pressure early in this first period and D'Amico was equal to the task turning away several shots. He did drift out of the crease on one save but recovered nicely. I'd like to see him improve his balance but for a 15 year old, I liked what I saw.

- Midway through the first period and Blue has not had much pressure on Pickard.

- I wrote down as many line combinations as I could but I probably did not get all of them. First one I wrote down was Petruzzelli - Jacobs - Silvester.

- Nice feed by Rai to the middle but D'Amico was ready for the re-direct and makes a nice stop. - Nice chance for Tyler Sybil from Luke Lockhart as Blue finally gets some pressure but Pickard makes the initial save and also squeezes a blast from Steve Chaffin off the rebound.

- Good hit by Joey Baker who dumps Parker. Quick additional note here... No less than 3 times last night I saw a good check only to look down to check the number of the player and it was Joey Baker. I have been very impressed by his physical game.

- Blue starting to finally apply some pressure and have dominated the action from the mid-way point to the 4:00 mark so far.

- Ness gets fed by Sanvido and gets off a good shot, saved by Pickard.

- Goal change here as DeSerres goes in for D'Amico who leaves with a clean sheet. Side note... Blue has 4 goaltenders tonight.

- Chance Lund with a nice speed rush around the outside of Berry-LaMontagna and gets a jam on DeSerres who makes the save.

- End of the 1st period, White dominated the 1st half, while Blue dominated the 2nd half as the period ends 0-0.

- Jahraus in net for Blue to start the 2nd period, DeSerres still in net for White.

- Schappert clangs one off the post after a rebound kicked out to him after a Rai shot.

- Petruzzelli tees up a big blast from the high slot on a give and go with Jacobs but the drive goes wide of the net. - Dillon hits Alos from behind... no call... not many penalties actually being called here.

- Jahraus with a couple of nice saves as Blue applies some nice pressure.

- Goal change as Barrie comes in for DeSerres for the Blue team. - Blue is on the board as Steve Chaffin beats Jahraus through the 5 hole (I believe) off a nice feed from Nielsen and Blue takes a 1-0 lead. Chaffin has impressed tonight... he has flashed some speed, played aggressively and looked confident being physical.

- Kind of a boring 2nd period and it ends with Blue leading 1-0. - Kowalski in net for White to start the 3rd with Barrie still minding the net for White.

- Sena just punked Fleming as he tried to apply a big hit along the board and Sena just blasted him back to the ice. Sena could be a real force up front if he uses his body and checking ability.

- Patrick D'Amico gets the White team on the board as he slips a shot past Barrie after Rai had a wraparound attempt that kicked out a rebound... game tied at 1-1.

- Right after that Enegren comes on in net for Blue replacing Barrie.

- Nice pinch at the blue line by Crema. Crema is a big kid (6'3" I believe) and I really like his potential... needs a little work on the footwork.

- Some more line pairings... Lockhart - Elliot - Sybil, Houcher - Newton - Acolatse, Sanvido - Ness - Hoff, Hickman - Tutt - Parker.

- Penalty on White for tripping... I was looking down and didn't see the offender but Blue is awarded the "contested" penalty shot and Joey Baker converts through Kowalski to give Blue a 2-1 lead. Baker has really impressed tonight...

- Nielsen goes right around Muth and fires into the bottom corner past Kowalski to give Blue the 3-1 lead.

- Lockhart gets around the defense gets off a shot that is saved by Kowalski, gets his own rebound and puts it off the top bar and down to give Blue the 4-1 lead. Kowalski has had a tough night but all three goals have been basically uncontested or lightly contested.

- Huge hit by Dillon as the buzzer sounds as he completely flattens Lechance. Team Blue takes the win 4-1 in the 1st training camp scrimmage.

Few more general thoughts on some kids.

- A couple of the defensemen that need to step up this season really impressed me on the first night. Dillon, Chaffin, Crema and Fleming all looked improved, confident and physical with Dillon and Chaffin really looking good to me.

- Relatively quiet night for Jacobs...

- Baker really impressed me tonight and unless he just falls apart after tonight, I would think he has to make the team as one of the 16 year olds.... however... as an un-drafted kid... I think he needs to continue playing like that.

I will only be able to attend the first 45 minutes of the scrimmage tonight... so I would highly encourage everyone to go down and check it out. 7:05 ShoWare Center.

Training Camp Rosters

I am writing up a recap from the first scrimmage last night and realized I should get the rosters up first. Here goes...

Team Blue

Goaltenders -

#1 - Nick Enegren
#29 - Jacob DeSerres
#30 - Conor Barrie
#34 - Jared D'Amico

Skaters -

#3 - Evan Wardley
#5 - Matthew Berry-LaMontagna
#6 - Steve Chaffin
#7 - Brenden Silvester
#8 - Stefan Warg
#9 - Justin LeChance
#11 - Connor Sanvido
#12 - Jason Ness
#13 - Austin Hoff
#14 - Anthony Petruzzelli
#16 - Andrew Macleod
#17 - Jordan Salahor
#18 - Lindsay Nielsen
#19 - Colin Jacobs
#20 - Luke Lockhart
#21 - Mitch Elliot
#22 - Mitch Berg
#23 - Joey Baker
#24 - Ryan Armbruster
#25 - Kyle Horsman
#26 - Tyler Sybil
#27 - Erik Fleming

Team White

Goaltenders -

#1 - Calvin Pickard
#29 - Danny Kowalski
#30 - Kyle Jahraus

Skaters -

#2 - Jeremy Schappert
#3 - Jared Crema
#5 - Brenden Dillon
#6 - Jordan Blake-Jones
#7 - Robbie Newton
#8 - Brandon Troock
#9 - Prab Rai
#11 - Gus Correale
#12 - Jacob Doty
#13 - Tyler Alos
#16 - Brennan Tutt
#17 - Sena Acolatse
#18 - Justin Hickman
#19 - Jeffrey Kennedy
#20 - Jordan Houghton
#21 - Brad Haber
#22 - Kaydon Trumbley
#23 - Chance Lund
#24 - Jetlan Houcher
#26 - Tanner Muth
#28 - Jonathan Parker
#32 - Patrick D'Amico

8.25.2009

1st Training Camp Scrimmage

I need to hit the sack so I will have a full recap in the morning.

Team Blue defeats Team White tonight 4-1. There was some good, some bad and some checking so it was a pretty good night.

8.24.2009

Monday and Corrections

Fitness testing going on today over at ShoWare Center with the Training Camp kids enjoying a little team BBQ tonight.

I made a couple of dumb mistakes the other day.... Anthony Petruzzelli is not named Andrew and the D'Amico kids are not related. I screwed that up in my haste to get a post up... my bad.

I meant to get over to the evening session yesterday and just didn't make it because of my two games that night.... also my bad.

I will be covering the scrimmage tomorrow night and about half of the scrimmage on Wednesday night to see what everyone looks like.

I would estimate that there are about 4-5 spots open on the roster in the current form so there is going to be a lot of competition for a very small number of spots.

As a reminder... the Tbirds open the exhibition season in Portland on Saturday night.

8.22.2009

Rookie Camp Rosters and Evening Session Recap

Ok... Let's hit the rosters first.

Team Blue

Goaltenders

#30 - Conor Barrie (no relation)
#29 - Danny Todosychuk
#1 - Danny Kowalski

Defense

#2 - Jordan Houghton
#3 - Miles Death (coolest name at camp)
#5 - Blake Box
#6 - Zach Frye
#17 - Johnny Dora
#26 - Tanner Muth

Forwards

#7 - Jetlan Houcher
#9 - Justin Hickman
#11 - Gus Correale
#12 - Jayson Ness
#13 - Tyler Alos
#14 - Kyle Horsman
#15 - Andrew Macleod
#16 - Austin Hoff
#19 - Colin Jacobs (perhaps you have heard of him?)
#20 - Patrick D'Amico
#21 - Mitch Elliot


Team White

Goaltenders

#30 - Dimitri Nikitins
#29 - Gianni Crema (yes related to Jared)
#1 - Jared D'Amico (EDIT: not related)

Defense

#2 - Mark Begert
#3 - Evan Wardley
#5 - Austin Barr
#6 - Mathew Berry-Lamontagna
#24 - Ryan Armbruster
#25 - Zach Walker

Forwards

#7 - Robbie Newton
#8 - Branden Troock
#11 - Connor Sanvido
#12 - Jacob Doty
#13 - Jeff Kennedy
#14 - EDIT: Anthony Petruzzelli
#15 - Jordan Salahor
#16 - Joey Baker
#17 - Josh Belmont
#18 - Lukas Audycki
#21 - Preston Blanek

I'm going to keep these comments fairly brief...

- Barrie and Nikitins started in net for each side.

- Sanvido goes down hard and leaves the ice after a big hit... I missed the license plate number but I think it might have been Andrew Macleod.

- First fight of the session sees Mitch Elliot going against Jacob Doty. Elliot has a size advantage here and mostly pounded on Doty but Doty just hung in there tough and despite being rocked a few times at the end of the fight really stayed in there tough and got in a few shots of his own that landed... each player gave respect after the fight.

- Sanvido back shortly after that and just in time to take the puck down the right hand side before sniping a nice goal past Barrie off the far post and into the net. Not much Barrie could really do about that one... definitely a goal scorers goal right there.

- Jayson Ness answers for the Blue team with a goal that beats Nikitins short side. Not to take anything away from Ness but this was a shot that should have been stopped and Nikitins would say the same thing.

- Goalie change... as Todosychuk and Crema come in for their teams.

- End of the first half tied 1-1.

- Robbie Newton scores for the White team jamming home a rebound after Todosychuk makes a really good save on Doty coming in on a breakaway.

- Blanek checks Jacobs from behind drawing a penalty... Jacobs did not care for the hit and circles back around after the whistle to give Blanek a little elbow. Crema makes the save on Jacobs on the penalty shot attempt.

- Goalie change again... Kowalski and D'Amico now in for both sides.

- Penalty on Mark Begert from Team White and Tyler Alos finishes on the breakaway past D'Amico to give Blue the 2-1 lead. Connor Sanvido nearly caught him on the penalty shot attempt (you might remember the format... where the player penalized gets a penalty shot while the other teams chase him from behind).

- Ryan Armbruster and Colin Jacobs have been going at it a little bit and Armbruster finally has enough and drops the gloves. Problem was... he grabbed Jacobs basically from behind giving Jacobs no real chance to defend himself and as a result turtled to the ground immediately... meaning this wasn't a fight by any stretch. Jacobs was not happy about it and could be heard asking Armbruster repeatedly "Who are you? Who are you?".

- Mark Begert with bad giveaway in the defensive zone and Justin Hickman steals the pass and finishes past D'Amico.

- Hickman scores again off a pass from Patrick D'Amico from a nice setup by Jacobs.

I left at this point with a couple of minutes left. Decent session from the boys... I thought early on there were too many kids trying too hard to do too much, but that is to be expected to a certain extent. There was some decent hitting and to be honest it looked to me like a lot of Team White kids were trying to make an impression by going after Jacobs. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that... but that was the observation.

I have to miss the morning session again tomorrow but I'll catch a decent amount of the evening session again.

8.17.2009

Training Camp Schedule

Tbirds just announced their camp schedule.... Sessions are open to the public.

Rookie Camp Schedule - Kent Valley and ShoWare

EDIT - NO FRIDAY

Saturday, 22nd at Kent Valley

10am - Noon
4pm - 6pm

Sunday, 23rd at ShoWare Center

10am - Noon
4pm - 6pm

Main Camp Schedule - ShoWare Center

Tuesday, 25th - 7pm - 9pm

Wednesday, 26th - 7pm - 9pm

I should be able to make almost all of this... I'll file some reports from the scrimmages.

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